ROBINSON, Texas (KXXV) — Robinson city officials are taking on the challenge of repairing 55 streets spanning over 31 miles, a task made urgent by years of deferred maintenance. City Manager Craig Lemin acknowledged the growing issue, stating, “It’s a daunting task, and it’s what happens when you don’t do anything for a long time. It catches up.”
- 55 roads that need repairs in our city
- $26 million to resurface the roads
- Right now, the city has about $10.5 million to work with.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“It's a daunting task, and it's what happens when you don't do anything for a long time. It catches up,” Robinson city manager Craig Lemin said.
The city is now planning to work on 55 streets that need repair, which make up more than 31 miles of our city.
“And as bad as the streets are now, many streets we did were worse,” Lemin said. “It was shocking how bad they were.”
Lemin told 25 News that resurfacing the roads will cost about $26 million. Right now, the city has about $10.5 million to work with.
“We only have about half the budget to maintain our streets properly,” Lemin said. “We're going to probably try to focus on some of the roads that are traveled because a lot of our work so far has been more neighborhood.”
The roads on the to-do list include: Greig Drive, Newland Drive, Tate Avenue, and East Moonlight Drive.
“I don't know that we have enough money to do them all, but we're going to tackle that kind of and see. I think Greig will probably come up first, just because it has a lot of traffic, and with the development out that way, that's just going to increase,” Lemin said.
However, the city is still trying to find the remaining money to finish the project.
“It's going to take finding the funding to do this, whether that's through bonds, which is a tax increase, or do we try to come up with some kind of a street fee,” Lemin said.
But right now, the city is focusing on maintaining newer streets.
“You can't do anything with streets unless you have money, and unfortunately, the primary source of our revenue is taxes,” Lemin said.
